The Flemish artist Bartholomeus Spranger was a master of Mannerism. Spranger was famous in his own lifetime. Working in Prague as a court artist for the Holy Roman emperor Rudolf II, he painted and drew Mannerist-style allegories involving nude and nearly nude gods and goddesses athletically entwined in anatomically improbable positions. His images were copied by expert engravers and disseminated widely.
Rudolf II moved the court to Prague in 1583, taking Spranger with him, and thus began a period known as Rudolfine Prague Rudolfine, a halcyon age for art and culture in that city. Bartholomeus Spranger's paintings for Rudolf II, for the most part, portray fanciful nudes in different complex stances, with some connection to the Emperor's esoteric Late-Reneissance philosophical thoughts. His paintings are the most characteristic of the final phase of Northern Mannerism.
Bartholomeus Spranger also worked as a sculptor for the Prague court. Having helped the Flemish sculptor Hans Mont, he acquired some knowledge of sculpting. After Mont left Prague, Spranger filled in as a sculptor for the emperor, until Mont's replacement, Adriaen de Vries arrived in Prague in 1601.
Spranger lived and thrived in Prague to the end of his life, dying a wealthy man in 1611.